When I saw the trailer I thought it was remake of this movie...music and lyrics by Sia..
Hmm, Scott Walker did the incidentals score too โย I guess that was the last thing he recorded before his death in 2019. So I might actually want to see that one! Also, the soundtrack is listed here on BEA, though the track entries don't credit the musicians responsible (they do that on Discogs though).
Various Artists Vox Lux (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2018)
The words "Vox" and "Lux" are used fairly widely in band names too, so it doesn't look like whoever made that movie was trying to lift something. Of course, when I see or hear the word "Lux" I immediately think of Lux Interior, the (unfortunately deceased) lead singer of The Cramps, who didn't look anything like Natalie Portman.
I just wanted to say that when I posted this the other day, it was meant to be somewhat "tongue in cheek":
MadhattanJack wrote:
It should really be called ""Record Store Weekend" now, since Friday night is when the stock is put out, then people come to the stores early on Saturday, then on Saturday afternoon people show up and say "I had to get here when?" and then on Sunday everybody prepares their eBay listings.
As I learned earlier today, this assessment is actually more accurate than I thought! The last time I'd driven to the Not-So-Big City for Record Store Day was about 15 years ago, and back then, the stores would get crowded during most of the day... but not that crowded. There were fewer "RSD Exclusives," and it didn't seem (to me at least) like the "Exclusives" were being treated primarily as investment opportunities by the buyers. I don't think I'm being naรฏve about this โ maybe a little bit, since obviously some of them were, but it just seemed like things were a lot less mercenary back then.
Long story short, basically, I screwed up.ย I just assumed (rather stupidly) that the store would open at the usual time, not 3 hours early. OOPS! Always check first! I won't make that mistake again. I had a list of 5 items I figured I would buy if they were available, but only two of them were โย the other three had been ordered, and for two of them they'd gotten some copies in, but those had all sold out within the first hour while I was still blissfully fast asleep.
In case anyone is curious, the 5 items on my want-list were...
XTC, Live Boots: Live at Emerald City 1981 - SOLD OUT (of all six copies that had come in)
Suede, Coming Up at the BBC - GOT THE LAST ONE
Tommy Keene, Songs From the Film: The 1984 Reflection Sessions - the store ordered some, but none came in
April March (Not An April March), Villerville - GOT THE LAST ONE
Arcade Fire, Open Your Heart Or Die Trying - SOLD OUT ("about" ten copies, "immediately," they said)
So... not bad, actually. The XTC thingy will probably be available on CD via their online store soon enough, and I was mostly just curious about the two others. (Admittedly, I might well have tried to "flip" the Arcade Fire album on eBay, assuming my account there is still active. Haven't logged in there in quite a while. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been the only one...)
I had a short conversation with the guy who runs the store, and he was quite emphatic that nobody โย including him โ seems to have any idea on Friday as to what's going to actually sell out quickly on Saturday morning. Advance media coverage (like this article in Variety and this one in Rolling Stone) are useless as far as predicting what's going to sell out quickly and what's likely to still be available after, say, 4 hours or so. People walk in with lists that go for 2-3 pages, in some cases buy well over $1,000 worth of merchandise, and you'd better be prepared for some jostling and getting pushed out of the way.
Here's a Youtube video posted a few hours ago, in which some guy from outside of Seattle gets in his car at 3AM, heads into town for RSD, and while it's still dark out, gets in line behind 25 other people at a store called Silver Platters. They're actually giving the customers numbers and letting them in just a few at a time, to prevent the store from being mobbed. (Good idea!) At the 13:20 mark, you can clearly see the XTC Live at Emerald City record on the wall display at the second store he goes to, so... I guess I should have moved to Seattle instead of where I live now? (It's a nice town.) Thankfully it's just a live album, I don't get too worked up over those, even if it's them. Either way, I'm glad I went, if only for that vague feeling of nostalgia for record shopping the late 70s and early 80s. (These guys look like they enjoyed the vague feeling too.)
OK, before we get to the April 24 stuff, here are three things I missed from last week.
Eaves Wilder, Little Miss Sunshine: This was a complete surprise (though not a "surprise drop," since it was announced weeks ago) โย way better than you'd expect given the name, the album title, or the album cover. It's basically a "waifgaze" album, not unlike a Hatchie or Mitski record, just more punkish, and the vocals more waifish, more like Paula Kelley (see above) or Cranes' Alison Shaw. I'd still rate the Teenage Suicide album a little higher, but it turned out to be less of a "slam-dunk" than I thought because of this record. (And who names their daughter "Eaves"? Do they have kids named "Soffits" and "Perlins" too? Jeez.)
Gary Klebe, Out Loud: If you don't remember who Gary Klebe is, don't feel bad โย I didn't either! Klebe was one of the two lead singers in Shoes, the mid-70s power pop band who (along with the Plimsouls, Motors, Records, Romantics, etc.) got lumped in with the New Wave crowd and nevertheless helped popularize the power-pop genre during the 80s. I even have a copy of Present Tense, but it had been so long since that came out (almost 50 years!) I just forgot. Thankfully Klebe hasn't abandoned the genre, this album is 100% O.G. power pop, though there may be a few more acoustic guitars involved now. "Maturity doesn't have to be boring," as my elderly mom once said before falling asleep for the 300th time that day.
Shapes Like People, Under the Rainbow: Here's a nice twee-adjacent janglepop husband-and-wife duo from Kent. (She's originally from New Zealand.) Maybe I'm just misunderstanding their band name, but every time I've encountered a shape they've been really rude and inconsiderate to me, so I don't really think of them as liking anybody. Still, pretty good album.
Obviously this Friday's big release is the new Foo Fighters LP, Your Favorite Toy. I'm not seeing any toys on the album cover, but that might be a wad of Silly Puttyโข on the guy's hand in the lower-right corner... There are about a dozen albums that look interesting, including a new Cabaret Voltaire album for the geriatric post-punk set (not to mention a new Ringo Starr album for the geriatric not-so-post-punk set). But I suspect my pick-of-the-week has already been released โย yesterday, to be precise, with the appearance of a new ๆฑไบฌ้ ๅๅบง [Tokyo Shoegazer] album, entitled "Remains." Sometimes, if you really want the good stuff, you just have to go to Japan.
Maybe I'll change my mind though, if only to be less predictable. ๐
Part of the Ty Segall garage rock universe, Tim Presley under the moniker White Fence has been releasing Psych Pop nuggets since 2010. Ty Segall produces and plays drums. Worth checking out if you have a soft spot for Syd Barrett-ish Psychedelic Pop. I'm a sucker for this particular genre. If you giggle a bit (still!) when someone coughs "420" this is the release of the week for you ( & me! ๐).
What April 24th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! ๐ญ๐
I have really been loving Fatboi Sharif's stuff the past few years, just gets into weird and fucked up zones with his raps and the accompanying production that don't feel quite like anyone else.
There's lots of good stuff this week, but right now I'm not hearing one particular great thing. That could change, but for the moment at least I'm sticking with my initial reactions, or whatever you'd call 'em. (Impulses? Gut feelings? Overweening tendencies?)
Tokyo Shoegazer, Remains: Look, they're shoegazers from Tokyo. It's right there in the name. No false advertising here, folks! This is my Pick of the Week, but just barely.
Sloome, Blue Fire Doom: Sloome is a shoegaze-pop band from Modesto, CA, and when I use the term "shoegaze pop," of course that's supposed to mean they're more shoegaze than pop. Otherwise, they'd be "popgaze." This band is right on the line between the two, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, for now. They're really more like a "shoegaze power-pop" band, but you can't call them that because then you'd have to call some bands "power-popgaze" or even "powergaze," and that would just be silly. Another problem is that I just recently listened to the band Shoes, because of that new Gary Klebe album, so when I heard this Sloome LP it struck me as sounding a lot like what Shoes would have sounded like if they'd been a shoegaze band, but then people would insist on calling them "shoesgaze" just to be clever. So at some point, you really have to say enough is enough.
Misty Coast, Always Sun: Here's a nice dreampop (with just a touch of trip-hop) duo from Bergen, Norway, who were once in a band called The Megaphonic Thrift. This is their fifth album, and at this point I'd have to say they've surpassed both the Megaphonic Thrift and the Polyphonic Spree in terms of output quality.
Crocodiles, Greetings From Hell: A long-running garage-punk duo from San Diego, Crocodiles have now made 9 albums and have yet to put an image of a crocodile โ or any other lizard โ on an album cover, or even a single or EP cover. C'mon guys, your records are a lot of fun and you sound pretty good, but put your money where your mouth is for once!
Tempers, Delusion: This is a solo darkwave artist from NYC who sounds like she wanted to make a goth record, but her vocal tone lacks the necessary menace and "growl factor" for that, so she's calling it "low-lit poetic synth-pop." The important thing is that she tried, I guess... It's a pretty good album, and she even reminds me of Shana Falana a little bit, which is good... but for the next one I'd suggest she avoid self-labeling altogether.
Zin, Levitation Frequency: This is a stoner/grungegazey kinda band (duo?) from Pittsburgh, who sound like they might have been a screamo band at one point and the singer just couldn't take it anymore, so now he sounds like he's being slowly strangled over the course of the LP. They sound great, but if you have any empathy at all for people suffering from serious pain in the ol' larynx, it could be triggering for you.
Boy With Apple, Navigation: These folks bill themselves as Sweden's answer to My Bloody Valentine, which probably isn't a good idea marketing-wise because they don't really sound like My Bloody Valentine at all, and Sweden already has Makthaverskan, whom most MBV fans would probably prefer over these folks. Still, I like it!
There are a few more that I'm less thrilled about, but they deserve a mention at least.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Acknowledge Kindness: This is a guy named Glenn Donaldson, from the San Francisco Bay area, who may be one of the most prolific recording artists of the 21st century. Discogs lists him as being a member of 30 (that's thirty) different bands, some of which are just DIY one-offs, but not all โ this is the 12th album he's recorded as The Reds, Pinks & Purples in just over 6 years, and that's just one "project." As for this particular record, I'd say his vocals sound a bit over-dramatic, like he's trying to be The New Leonard Cohen or something, but otherwise it's fine. And who knows, maybe he will be The New Leonard Cohen, or... something. Someday.
TV Star, Music For Heads: A tweegaze/jangle-pop act from the Sea-Tac area. By BEA rules this would be their second album, but they're calling 2023's six-track Hallucinate Me an EP, so as far as they're concerned this is their debut LP. And it's good, I'm not saying it isn't, a little spotty maybe... the band name just seems a little presumptuous to me.
Visit Me, Daystar: Here's a kind of pastoral-folkgazey, occasionally ambient-electronica-ish trio from England, but they're not telling us what specific part of England they're from, so visiting them is going to be a bit of a problem. I'll probably try to do it anyway, but if I get arrested for stalking, it's going to be their fault.
Rachel Grimes, Waltzes & Love Songs of Henry Hart: I've always liked Rachel's, but since Rachel Grimes started making albums all by herself, I've been less enthusiastic. Also, I don't really like Henry Hart, but that whole bad business goes all the way back to elementary school, and I'd rather not talk about it now. (Okay, that might have been a different Henry Hart, but I don't like to take chances.) It's quality work, though... just not my thing, personally.
[*]Crocodiles, Greetings From Hell: A long-running garage-punk duo from San Diego, Crocodiles have now made 9 albums and have yet to put an image of a crocodile โ or any other lizard โ on an album cover, or even a single or EP cover. C'mon guys, your records are a lot of fun and you sound pretty good, but put your money where your mouth is for once!
When I saw earlier today that this band is still together and releasing a new album I was surprised. I own a couple of their albums and saw them play live in 2011 when they opened for Dum Dum Girls (At the time Crocodiles singer Brandon Welchez was married to Dum Dum Girls Dee Dee Penny-since divorced). They had a real J&MC vibe going on in both their style and noise pop sound. Might check this album out now that I know they didn't drop pff the face of the earth. Also, if I remember reading correctly they named their band after Echo & The Bunnymen's debut album which also does not have an image of a crocodile on it's cover.
Also, if I remember reading correctly they named their band after Echo & The Bunnymen's debut album which also does not have an image of a crocodile on it's cover.
I looked into this...
Most people wouldn't, of course, but this is just sort of "what I do." As it turns out, there are roughly a hundred recording artists on Discogs whose names contain the word "crocodile" in some way, shape, or form, and practically none of them have made albums with cover art featuring one or more crocodiles, or again, lizards of any kind.
I don't mean to derail the thread or anything, but honestly, I was astonished by this. What is it about crocodiles that causes bands to put the word in their band names but not images of them on album covers? And is this common for bands that name themselves after other animals? Or is it crocodile-specific?
If I had to some up with a theory, I'd say maybe the answer involves the process most bands go through in choosing a name. In my own experience, usually there's a meeting, often more than one, and some sort of list is produced, and the band members take names off the list in a process of elimination. So you don't necessarily end up with the best name, you end up with the one that nobody objects to, or that everyone objects to the least. You could easily end up being called "Crocodiles" if the people in the band keep suggesting names like "The Shite-Munching Morons" or "Holeface" and just won't stop. But with album covers, it's a completely different story โย there's a lot of real work involved, which often costs real money, and it has to look good, so a lot of bands choose a more conservative approach and just use a group photo or something conventionally representational and, again, inoffensive.
I still don't like it, but I guess I shouldn't complain.
Anyway, I've been looking for surprise drops and other stuff that I missed from last week, at least among things that I personally might want to listen to, and surprisingly I haven't found any. There was a pretty decent album released yesterday by a (Canadian!) band, Ace of Wands, called Future Wave โย it's sort of not-quite-prog, not-quite-post-punk, maybe a little 70s AOR, very nice recording, kinda-sorta quirky, but not really my thing genre-wise. Still, some people should like it. It's their third LP, though the previous two haven't made it into the BEA database, at least not yet. (It's probably the vocals, as is often the case - their singer doesn't seem to emote much.)
The big pop/rock releases this week will be the new albums from Tori Amos, The Black Keys, Kacey Musgraves, and American Football. Also, the "reimagined" version of Arcade Fire's Pink Elephant goes into general release, and there's a rarities album coming from Super Furry Animals. I'm not so interested in any of these, though word is that the Tori Amos album, In Times of Dragons, is one of her "weirder ones," and it appears to be some sort of long-form metaphor for the US political situation to boot. So I'll probably give that a listen at least. ๐
Quique is better than Loveless. Whew. That feels so good to get off my chest. I think I've been holding that in since 1993. Alright. Let's build some momentum on this ...
Quique is better than Loveless! Quique is better than Loveless! Quique is better than Loveless! Quique is better than Loveless! Quique is better than Loveless!
So here's hoping to Seefeel dropping something even half as good tomorrow! ๐๐ AND, just in case anyone is wondering, I actually prefer Isn't Anything and that You Made Me Realize EP over Loveless as well. Not that I don't love Loveless. I just love Loveless a little less.
What May 1st, 2026 release(s) do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! ๐ญ๐
Last edited by Repo on 05/01/2026 11:38; edited 1 time in total
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